SC dismisses DU's plea challenging DDA decision
New Delhi: The Supreme Court has dismissed a petition of Delhi University (DU), which had challenged the May 12, 2011 decision of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) allowing Young Builders Pvt Ltd to construct a high rise residential building next to the Vishwavidyalaya Metro station and within a few hundred metres of the DU North Campus. The decades-long matter has now been put to rest by the top court, ruling that the DDA's decision of May 2011 was valid and noting that the DU had made exorbitant delays in challenging lower court decisions in the case.
The highly controversial 39-storey structure has already started construction after the North MCD cleared its building plans in August this year. And protests against the construction from all quarters have been on since then. Students of North Campus, DU Teachers' Association and student organisations like NSUI and ABVP have opposed the construction.
The DU had earlier filed a plea before a single-judge bench of the Delhi High Court, challenging the same DDA decision, which was dismissed in April 2015, following which the DU again approached a two-judge bench of the Delhi HC, which upheld the earlier judgement, again citing delay in filing the petition. The varsity then approached the top court with the plea, which has now been struck down by Justices R Banumathi and AS Bopanna.
Millennium Post had on December 26, reported that the DDA's May 12, 2011 decision was made after the Authority itself had tried to restrict construction of the building on two separate occasions in 2009 and 2011. "Despite the writ petition having been filed belatedly in respect of certain actions which had commenced in the year 2005 and even though the writ petition was filed after obtaining approval of the Executive Council, no steps were taken to file the writ appeal for 916 days after disposal of the writ petition. In such circumstance, the cumulative effect of the delay and laches cannot be ignored," the top court said, dismissing the plea.
